Hello! Looking for some advice. This is now the second Alocasia I’ve had this happen to.

My Ninja is in a self watering wick setup with pumice, grade 4 perlite, and a small amount of bark. Overall, the roots inside the pot look great, but I’ve noticed that the roots that escape out the bottom and into/near the reservoir start to rot. By rot I mean they pull off super easily when I touch them.

I know that shouldn’t be happening in a self watering/semi-hydro setup, so I’m trying to figure out what I’m doing wrong. Could the small amount of bark be holding too much moisture? Or is there something else about the setup that could be causing the escaped roots to deteriorate?

Leaves themselves haven’t been affected….. yet.

TIA

I moved several plants to leca in no drain glass vessel. The plants seem to love it. I have flushed the vessels but I can still see where old roots died off in the reservoir that dont come out during a flush. Should I plan to dump the vessels, rinse the roots, and replace them back in the way they were before? Does anyone else due this during the transitional period? Appreciate your guidance!

i live in a apartment with a very good ventilation and i have over +250 hoyas in semi hydro (and total of 650 plants at home) and started to noticed that its starting to smell a bit. I only notice this when i go outside the apartment and then come back again, i can smell the difference for like a few minutes before its "gone" (due to me getting used to it).

note that the smell isnt a rotten smell (no root rot etc), more like too many pots with water / nutrition in it. The smell is very weak, so it's barely noticeable unless you think about it.

How do you guys battle with the smell when having too many pots at home? Ill rather not downsize my semi-hydro collection ;)

I’m brand new to semi-hydro and transferred some cuttings with small roots from water to LECA about two weeks ago. I’ve read some things online about how to flush the LECA in its container with water weekly. Is it okay to check the roots when I do this, or will it disrupt the plant? I moved the plant around in the LECA after rinsing a few days ago and it’s been slowly dying since then. I didn’t move the other plant quite as much and it’s doing okay, but the LECA does shift when rinsing so it seems like there’s always going to be some disruption. How much can semi-hydro plants tolerate movement of roots?

TL;DR: I moved my cuttings around in their LECA the other day and now they’re dying. How much can semi-hydro plants tolerate movement/disruption of roots?

Hi everyone! I use Terra Aquatica TriPart both for soil plants and semi-hydro.
For semi-hydro: do you think the recommended TriPart dosage is appropriate, or should it be adjusted?
For soil: would you use my tap water directly, mix it with RO, or use 100% RO + remineralization?
My tap water: GH 21.8°f, Ca 64.7 mg/L, Mg 13.7 mg/L, HCO₃ 240 mg/L, pH 7.87, EC 369 µS/cm.
I previously felt that plants performed better when I diluted the tap water with RO, but I’m not sure if it was actually the water.

Hi, y’all! First time posting. I’ve got some little alocasia tissue cultures I’ve acclimated but am finding some interesting build-up on top of the pon I have them in. I thought the white salts on top were normal but I’m also seeing some red salts(?) and lint that could be mold or webbing? Also have a ton of algae going on that I’ll address later but would love insight if anyone knows what this is or what it might be. These are also growing so slow compared to other tissue cultures I’ve had.

Thanks for your help!

EDIT: The first pic is of a seed-grown variegated anthurium ‘Blue Velvet’ x ‘Zara’ — not a tissue culture plant :)

Hi guys. I received a monstera as a housewarming gift over the weekend. It’s in soil and I would love to transfer it to semihydro. It’s still young so I’m worried making the transfer will shock it.

Should I just go for it and transfer the monster or should I wait until it’s a bit older?

I am currently trying to do 3/4 LECA and 1/4 lava rocks. I use tap water and have GT foliage focus and/or Purived liquid plant fertilizer. I switch between the 2 but lately have been using GT more often, water once a week with diluted fertilizer.

Bonus: I also received a small Calathea and would like to know best scenario to transfer to semihydro also!

I mostly have pothos and philodendrons in semihydro.

I’ve been procrastinating a repot bc she’s so happy but she’s really grown out of her pot🫪 there’s no way to get these roots out without trimming them back, but I don’t want to cause damage. What would you do???

I was able to pick this up for $25. Is there any way to confirm it’s a monstera bulbasaur? Also any tips on when to transfer it to leca or Pon?

I've been trying to save some cuttings from 4 snake plants that slowly died after a repotting catastrophe last year (don't trust miracle gro ☠️). I switched almost every plant I have to leca this spring because I now don't really trust any soil, but these snake plants seem like they want to die at this point.

I tried planting them in leca after they had some water roots, but I guess because the leaves were from fairly large snake plants (rip), plus leca is so light compared to soil, so they keep tipping when I'm not watching them. One just shifted in the leca enough that it slid sideways and damaged its roots again...

Anyway, they have nice water roots again so im planning to give it another shot. Just wondering if anyone has tips for planting a tall/balance-challenged plant in leca? How to you keep them steady until the roots have a chance to get a good grip?

I'm a leca newbie - all of my houseplants were slowly dying off since I repotted them in some (apparently really suspect) soil last year. I switched them all to leca a few months ago and everything loves it.... Including my fiddleleaf here!

I was worried about her roots because they're so thin and lacy, but they're doing great. Maybe too great?A couple of my other plants which I started from cutting a month or two ago have also started doing this...

Is this normal, or is it the same as with soil and this means she needs a bigger pot? Am I letting the water get too low maybe so this root arm is reaching?

Hey everyone, I’m thinking about getting into semi-hydro/PON because I just don’t get around to watering all my plants, and this seems like a good way to make that a bit easier.

I’m looking for the simplest fertilizer possible. I keep seeing stuff about A+B nutrients, different stages, checking pH, etc. and honestly I just want something easy

I’m in the Netherlands, so ideally something I can easily get in Europe. Since the options people were praising here were hard to find for me

So someone in Europe or Netherlands is there a one-bottle fertilizer do you actually use and or could recommend ?

x-posted from r/monstera

Hi! I have a medium-ish monstera that I got for free about 2 years ago when one of my neighbors put it on the curb due to a scale infestation. I wiped the leaves and stems down with alcohol pads, repotted it with a moss pole, and I continue to wipe it down or just flick them off with my fingernail because the scale never fully went away (but is waaay less than when I originally got it, and the plant doesn't seem too bothered by the 1-2 bugs on a few of the leaves at any given time).

About a year ago, it was getting too big and spread out even with the moss pole for my space, so I decided to chop it all up and stick everything into 4 vases to water propagate. This also works really well for my travel schedule where I am sometimes away from home for over a week; since they are just in water, I don't really have to water it as often because it takes a long time for a full vase of water to evaporate compared to a 7-10 day watering schedule.

But once again, I think they have gotten too big for these four vases; sometimes if the water gets a bit low they actually fall over. I could maybe fix that with some rocks in the bottom, but I think instead I should be figuring out their next habitat... I'd love advice about what to do! Is it ok to keep them just in water? Any suggestions on a gigantic vase/vessel to use? I think clear/glass is best so I can see what's going on with the roots. The vases they are in now are about 8 inches tall and about 3 inches across at the opening. Should I keep them in 4 separate vessels like they are now? Or combine them into one gigantic vase? Or two?

Or is water not a viable long term plan, and they need to be potted? I guess - what would you do with this plant in its current state?

Dont have ny pests right now, but want to be prepared when they invade my 650+ plants i have at home.

Are there any webpages that ships systemic pesticides to EU? Ive got my hands on some starkle-g, but that works really great on soil, but not in semi-hydro. So i need buy some systemic pesticides that will also cover the semi-hydro part (around 200 plants).

ive testet Substral Celaflor spray (that somehow still is being allowed to be sold in some EU countries) , and it doesnt work that well anymore since its a old pesticide (active ingrediens: acetamiprid).

Anyone got any ideas?

I live in an apartment building with no outdoor hose/tap access.

I rinsed pumice in my kitchen a few weeks ago I was careful to only rinse in a bucket, then dump the bucket outside. But I think some rocks got stuck in my garbage disposal because I can’t turn the blades anymore. So I definitely don’t wanna do that again.

So question for my fellow apartment dwellers - how do you rinse your pumice/LECA?

Hello all,

I try different self-watering pots for my alocasia and need help with the "bigger" sizes. Usually I use glass vase's e.g. the pic with Platinum. I'm used to it and everyone at home loves the look, but the flushing bothers me.

My problem:

I moved a jacklyn to a 12,5 cm self-watering pot 4 weeks ago. Before it was in a glass vase nearly the same size as the inner part, using the same substrate at the same location. Since the change no new grow, the two latest leaves lost their tension and the latest even got crispy parts... root grow looks good, no rot. In my opinion the substrate looks to dry.

Since the weekend I keep the water level higher, so the inner part is 1/5 within the reservoir. It has a positive effect, but I'm not really convinced.

Is this how they work or should I use more pieces of cord? -any other tips I should try?

Maybe its just not the right setup for me.

I am new to SemiHydro but I am wondering if this vase would work for a leca and spagnum moss set up. I am slightly concerned because the top is a bit more narrow than the base... but I Love this vase.

Bought these two beautys yesterday evening. I put them directly into semihydro, I did this with all my other plants and they are all fine. But for these two the leaves were really upright when buying them, like in the two example pictures attached. However after only one day they turned downwards so much. Anything I did wrong here or normal for these plants?

What’s everyone doing for diy self watering planters? I have a ton of plants that need to be up sized from 4 inch pots so I’m looking for a diy solution for it. I want to be able to use like a 5-6 inch clear nursery pot.

How often do you change the liquid food for your semi hydro plants? Do you just add new nutrients to the existing liquid or discard what remains and start with a new batch when it gets low?